Wtf is “engineering?”
In it’s most stripped down form, engineering is basically problem solving. Working in audio this could mean a thousand different things, including:
How do we capture the most genuine audio image of our host’s energy?
Our guest’s microphone does not work and we only have 30 mins to get an interview recorded. What’s the best way forward?
How do we create a 3d audio world that transports our listener to a galaxy 3,236 light years away?
This tape is hard to understand and there’s a lot of plosives, can you make it more legible?
There’s an art to problem solving. But what about the problem of all the confusion in the podcasting industry about what an engineer actually does?
It’s not anyone’s fault per se. Many podcasters love to position themselves as scrappy. An audio nerd hunched over a laptop with headphones on editing away at tape until genius is uncovered.
But what about the invisible work? The team’s of producers, engineers, sound designers, composers? The health of our necks? Our backs? Our ears and wrists? (lol)
I want to clear up some of the confusion so we can better communicate, understand the value in, and be more equitable in how we credit, compensate audio engineers.
Why is this problem so specific to podcasting?
In film and television there is usually a sound department. Not a sound person, but a whole ass team of people. These sound departments usually consist of various roles such as…
In music…
In radio….
But somehow in podcasting, we ended up tasking some engineering duties to producers, and where did that start? Did it start from a place of scarcity? Do we still need to operate from that placr of scarcity when we’re doing 6-figure deals and podcasting is a multimillion dollar business?
Put some respek on engineers. CREDIT and PAY us.